John Oliver pulls the curtain back on Dr. Oz and his weight-loss ‘magic beans’

On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver ridiculed Dr. Mehmet Oz for claiming that he couldn’t do a daily television show without occasionally promoting weight loss supplements as “magical” or “miraculous.”

“Name me one case,” Oliver said, “in which a man named Oz claimed mystical powers and led people horribly astray.”

“The only problem with the ‘Dr. Oz effect,'” he continued, referring to the skyrocketing demand for products Oz endorses on his shows, “is that magic pills don’t technically exist — and Dr. Oz knows that.”

Oliver then cut to Dr. Oz testifying before the House Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection & Product Safety, in which he said, “there’s not a pill that’s going to help you long-term lose weight without diet and exercise.”

“That would be ridiculous,” Oliver injected. “No one is claiming that there’s a magic pill out there — that would be stupid,” before cutting to Dr. Oz claiming just that.

“This little bean,” Oz said, “has scientists saying that this might be a magic weight-loss cure for every body type.”

“See!” Oliver said. “He never said there was a magic weight-loss pill — he said there was a magic bean. That’s clearly entirely different, because magic beans are a very real thing that you trade your cow for, so you can steal a golden harp from the Giants. That’s science.”

“And by the way,” Oliver added, “a recent study found that the ingredients in those ‘magic beans’ not only fails to help lab mice — it gives them the early symptoms of diabetes.”

About the Author

Scott Eric Kaufman is the proprietor of the AV Club's Internet Film School and, in addition to Raw Story, also writes for Lawyers, Guns & Money. He earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California, Irvine in 2008.